An arbitration clause referring to arbitrators every dispute relating to the validity, interpretation and performance of the contract in each of its components extends to subsequent stipulations which, constituting clarifications, additions or variations during the course of the works, contribute to forming a single contractual synallagma.
Arbitration constitutes a valid alternative means of resolving the dispute where the entire economic transaction is referred to the cognisance of private adjudicators under a single arbitration agreement.
The existence of an arbitration clause does not exclude the power of the ordinary court to issue an order for payment (decreto ingiuntivo), but requires, where opposition is founded on that clause, that the order opposed be declared void and the dispute referred to the arbitrators.
The acceptance of the plea of referral to arbitrators entails that any assessment of the merits of the principal claim and of the counterclaim is subsumed, for want of jurisdiction.